Simply Love Read Free Page A

said with a dismissive gesture of one hand. “It is a Bedwyn home, and I am a Bedwyn. It is also a very large home. You must certainly come.”
    The Duke of Bewcastle, Anne reflected, was reputed to be one of the coldest and most toplofty aristocrats in the country. All the Bedwyns had a reputation for being impossibly high in the instep. She was the daughter of a gentleman of very little social significance beyond the neighborhood in which he lived. She was also a teacher, an ex-governess. All of which paled beside the fact that she was also
the unmarried mother of an illegitimate son
.
    How could she possibly…
    â€œWe will not take no for an answer,” Lady Hallmere said imperiously, looking along the length of her rather prominent nose at Anne. “And so you might as well resign yourself to returning to your school after tea to begin packing your bags.”
    The house in Wales was a large one, the marchioness had said. There were many Bedwyns, and they were all now married with children. It would surely be easy enough, then, to remain aloof from them. She could spend most of her time making herself useful with the children. And in the meantime, David would have the freedom of a country house and estate close to the sea, and—more important—he would have other children to play with, some of them boys of his own age. He would have Joshua, whom he adored, as an adult male role model.
    She could not possibly deny him all that. But equally, she could not possibly let him go alone.
    â€œVery well,” she said. “We will come. Thank you.”
    â€œSplendid!” Joshua said, beaming at her and rubbing his hands together.
    As Anne walked back to the school a short while later, though, she was not at all sure she agreed. But it was too late to change her mind now. Joshua had already told David and Daniel while Anne was acquainting herself with his young daughter in the nursery, and her son was now skipping along at her side like a much younger child and prattling in a loud, excited voice that drew more than one glance from passersby.
    â€œAnd we are to go boating and swimming and rock climbing,” he was saying. “And we will build sand forts and play cricket and climb trees and play pirates. Davy is going to be there—do you remember him, Mama, from years ago, before we came to Bath? And there is to be a boy called Alexander. And some girls—I remember Becky. Do you? And the little ones will need someone to play with them, and I will enjoy doing that. I like Daniel—he follows me around as if I were a great hero. Is he really my cousin?”
    â€œNo,” Anne said quickly. “But to him you
are
a hero, David. You are a big boy. You are all of nine years old.”
    â€œIt is all going to be
such
fun,” he said as they turned the corner from Sutton Street onto Daniel Street and knocked at the school doors. “Let
me
tell, Mama.”
    And he proceeded to do just that to the elderly porter, who exclaimed in amazement in all the right places.
    â€œYes,” Anne said, meeting his eyes over her son’s head. “We are going to Wales for the summer, Mr. Keeble.”
    David was already on his way upstairs to tell Matron the glad tidings.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 
    â€œYou are doing
what
?” Claudia Martin asked an hour later after the crocodile had returned to the school and resolved itself into a group of chattering girls, who all declared as they passed Anne on the stairs that she had missed a treat and that the Sally Lunn buns were so huge that they were sure they would not be able to eat another
thing
until morning.
    Claudia’s question was rhetorical, of course, since she was not by any means deaf and the only other occupant of her private sitting room was Susanna, who was sprawled in a chair beside the fireplace recovering from the long walk in the summer heat. She was fanning her face